Night in the Woods

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Night in the Woods

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

Finished up the game this morning and loved every second of it. The ending does wrap up a little soon, but I did appreciate that they didn't just answer all of the questions.

The stuff with the cult reminded me a lot of Hot Fuzz's big reveal. I think it comes from a very similar place of adults loving things up and killing people to try to hang onto some rapidly dwindling prosperity.

I feel that this was supposed to be a supernatural thing, and I agree that it was way better that they didn't have a Poirot type explanation for why it was caused by mine gasses or something.

That being said I do hope that Scott puts out a lore/making of book at some point (along with the soundtrack!)

For those of you who did the pastor's story Did you guys also get the vibe that the homeless dude was definitely telling Mae a lie about why he was leaving to make her not be sad? When he was talking about never drinking again and seeing his kids again I really felt like this guy was not actually going to do any of that...it seemed way to happy of an ending for this world.

Sushi in Yiddish fucked around with this message at 13:55 on Feb 26, 2017

# ¿ Feb 26, 2017 13:46

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# ¿ Apr 30, 2024 07:05

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

Minor non story interaction spoiler fanart

https://twitter.com/insertdisc5/status/835681706338287616

# ¿ Feb 26, 2017 23:21

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

bewilderment posted:

For reals though what's up with the janitor

Got a definite The Stranger vibe from the dude

VVV yes. vvv

Sushi in Yiddish fucked around with this message at 04:44 on Feb 27, 2017

# ¿ Feb 27, 2017 04:26

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

youcallthatatwist posted:

Someone remind me whether or not Molly was in the epilogue at all? Because if not I think the implication was that she was one of the cultists, hence why she appears right after the first "ghost sighting", her comments about protecting people like Mae, etc. In that case her warnings throughout the game come off as sympathetic; she legitimately didn't want Mae to get hurt.

Yeah I didn't think she'd bother updating Mae on the details of the chopped-off arm if she was part of it. I think she said that the person was dead when it was cut off. Possible that the coroner was lying or I wonder if that meant that the cult guys really were super long lived to the point of kind of undeath...I mean they actually do have some kind of supernatural powers right?

# ¿ Feb 27, 2017 13:45

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

kidcoelacanth posted:

This game got me to sit down and draw something for the first time in forever.

Lori M needs more love, she's probably my favorite character in the whole thing.

I don't think I talked to her more than once or saw the area to the right of the stairs so ive got some more exploring to do

# ¿ Feb 28, 2017 04:51

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

Macaluso posted:

I just realized... that away message that never changes on the laptop belonged to Casey didn't it

Oh Christ I thought it was Mae's...

# ¿ Feb 28, 2017 07:23

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

https://twitter.com/isawiitchtalk/status/836790887497744386
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORdQI7oCAUg
A few nice covers of NITWs songs collected in this article
http://kotaku.com/fans-are-covering-the-songs-from-night-in-the-woods-rhy-1792835824
The guy doing the bass cover's gonna do Pumpkin Head guy next, which should be super neat

I fuckin' need some covers of the polka/klezmer-ish songs from the dream sequences

Sushi in Yiddish fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Mar 1, 2017

# ¿ Mar 1, 2017 15:17

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

kidcoelacanth posted:

https://t.co/i6YYCRa8qi

Hoping this game gets the "tons of awesome fan music" treatment it deserves.

Oh poo poo, came here to post this. I know it might not fit the band's style but I wish Scott had snuck one ska song onto that soundtrack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KscLkUC3YAQ

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 04:00

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

Nichael posted:

I found a decent upload of the second dream level music.

Awesome! For anyone who can identify it, what music genre would this be? The instruments make me think of polka or klezmer.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 23:24

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

https://twitter.com/regularcars/status/837389225825828865

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 23:54

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

https://twitter.com/PaulMcIcedTea/status/837443658706268165

# ¿ Mar 3, 2017 14:46

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

AnxiousSloth posted:

So I finished my first play through, Something to think about, the cultist that attacks Mae at the end of the game loses an arm, kinda like the one they find outside the diner? I guess I shouldn't assume that the cultists need to feed the black goat alive, but I thought maybe some sort of weird time poo poo could be involved? Although this obviously doesn't make sense since the one cultist who gets straight up murdered said he dropped it. I just like the idea that Mae was poking her own severed arm from the future/alternative reality.

Also just like Arkannoyed just posted how do you get to the windmill on the roof of the Ol' Pickaxe, I generally tried to do everything every day I could but I absolutely could not find a way up there even after trying for a solid 20 minutes of different game parkour.

I figured that the attacking guy at the end WAS the guy with the arrow gutshot and missing arm since he was the most keen to kill them back in the mine when the others were gonna let them go.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2017 00:29

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

https://twitter.com/bombsfall/status/838180463202217984

# ¿ Mar 5, 2017 02:06

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

JazzFlight posted:

Despite the tedious backtracking needed to check every updated conversation point during the day hours and having to look for the 4 musicians every night (what I wouldn't give to have a fast-travel menu or sprint button), I really liked this game. The dialogue and emotional gut-punches of the Bea storyline (I didn't hang out with Gregg this run, so I dunno how his goes) really hit me. I love how Mae is a super-flawed fuckup, even when you're given "choices" for her dialogue to try to soften her selfishness.

Here's an angle I haven't yet seen brought up in this thread:
Since the whole game centers around poor rust-belt communities that have to come to grips with their jobs leaving town... (political stuff ahead tied to end-of-game spoilers):

Did anyone feel a metaphorical connection to real-world events at the end and the revelation of the cult? Like, without specifically naming him, this game explains why Trump won the election, scooping up the disenfranchised blue-collar districts in WI/MI/PA that have no idea how to continue making a livelihood in their burnt-out mining/factory towns. He is the dark elder god they sacrifice the forgotten ones who "nobody would miss" to and rant about those in power giving preference to immigrants and minorities (love that Bea went "oh here we go..." when the cultist started on that poo poo).

It gave me, a white college-educated liberal from an affluent suburb, a large insight into the pain that poorer, small-town voters felt this election. Selmers' poem at the library was some extremely powerful poo poo. Of course, the game also shows that falling for a con-man like Trump is the super wrong path by advocating a return to stronger unions and rejecting the idolization of the wealthy.

Of course, I could also be reading too much into this, but I definitely felt this connection and message throughout.

Aside from the political stuff, I definitely got some great Donnie Darko/Catcher in the Rye/Twin Peaks vibes from this. The crushing feeling of growing into adulthood and not knowing how to deal with your emotions or new responsibilities was palpable.

I think there's a lot of spiritual ties to Edgar Wright's trilogy of films too.

Hot fuzz is the closest to the main plot of the game, with the elders of a small town turning out to be murderous cultists-sacrificing undesirables to try to return the town to a lost glory. Shaun of the Dead and the World's end especially were definitely exploring "what happens when you/your friends start growing up and apart?

Mae telling Bea that she should just quit her job and do something else felt a lot like what well meaning people try to tell people in economically depressed communities to move to big cities when all it does is uproot them from important social and familial support systems for a job with no security.

This is probably the first game I've ever played where the existential lovecraftian horror is late capitalism

# ¿ Mar 6, 2017 03:07

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

According to Scott, this podcast does a deep dive on thematic stuff, I'm gonna give it a listen

https://twitter.com/bombsfall/status/838998701649514497

Edit: The podcast was good! It picked on some interesting mechanical things about how your choices change your perception of the town.

hioly shti
https://twitter.com/tdtbaa/status/838893607767658496

(if you dig the game deffo follow @bombsfall )

Sushi in Yiddish fucked around with this message at 14:47 on Mar 7, 2017

# ¿ Mar 7, 2017 13:08

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

JazzFlight posted:

I do like that Mae was a selfish lazy jerk because her friends called her out on it. Bea ripping into her in her friendship events was very satisfying and I thought added more depth than just having a blank "you can be good/bad as the player" protagonist. Mae really had her own voice and shortcomings.

Of course, there's a bit more gray area to it as well:
Mae reveals the truth about the violent incident in her past and her dropping out of college as being caused by mental illness and she has legit disabilities in that regard, so there's definitely sympathy there.

Also it ready does seem like a part of the problem was that the local doctor and the town had no idea how to deal with mental illness at the time either

# ¿ Mar 8, 2017 01:18

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

Wowporn posted:

Man I dunno how you managed that, didn't you climb stuff?

Also I think my playthrough was longer than most people's cause I combed literally the whole town every day and got like 17 hours altogether

I spent a good minute or two just sitting in the food donkey watching all the miracle rat babies

I haven't seen the inside of that shop or Lori at all, I thought I combed things over pretty thoroughly but I just found out that there's a area to the right of the stairs in Mae's house where the bookshelf is so there's a lot in this game you don't see unless you comb everything

# ¿ Mar 8, 2017 04:39

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

https://twitter.com/voidfishduet/status/839350772877885440

# ¿ Mar 8, 2017 13:17

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

Alder posted:

OST is out: https://infiniteammo.bandcamp.com/album/night-in-the-woods-vol-1-at-the-end-of-everything

This is worth it for the dream songs alone. Goddamn

# ¿ Mar 10, 2017 04:18

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

Wowporn posted:

im gonna listen to the video outpost song for 6 weeks straight

Same but for Astral Alley

Also an interesting thing is that the next dream song is Astral Coal Train, kind of the left-over spirit of the industry that once powered the town. I wonder if there's other references to the coal train in the game. I remember there were a lot of mine carts and stuff in the woods before poo poo went down with the cult.
Edit: I can't read. Its Astral Coal town whups

Sushi in Yiddish fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Mar 11, 2017

# ¿ Mar 10, 2017 12:54

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

The game fan art is good
https://twitter.com/TruNorthArt/status/841115913424375810

# ¿ Mar 13, 2017 07:13

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

https://twitter.com/serenityfails/status/835640748821393408
Their take on human versions of the characters is pretty great.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2017 12:22

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

Opposing Farce posted:

I'm still anxiously waiting for a Die Anywhere Else cover that really captures the "lovely punk garage band" sound, 'cause lovely punk garage bands rule.

Gettin' closer!

https://twitter.com/peppercoyote/status/841112486413721600

# ¿ Mar 13, 2017 13:31

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

precision posted:

Mae is bisexual, right? I know she likes "cute boys" but I could have sworn she also mentions being attracted to women at least once, early on?

https://twitter.com/bombsfall/status/836137525588688896

# ¿ Mar 15, 2017 00:00

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

Macaluso posted:

I'm pretty sure he's supposed to be a fox though his tail doesn't work for that

Scott's said his original drawings were intended to be a wolf/dog but everyone said he was a fox so they went with that IIRC.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2017 04:14

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

Mae body garf head will always get a laff from me
https://twitter.com/acornfriend/status/844023174631247873

# ¿ Mar 21, 2017 05:38

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

https://twitter.com/lesbmiserables/status/844593888396525568

# ¿ Mar 23, 2017 05:02

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

https://twitter.com/pheoniic/status/843984476799733761

# ¿ Mar 24, 2017 14:25

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

I seem to recall somebody askin' for a cover of Pumpkin Head guy in a garage band punk style?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JuvjsjezWs

# ¿ Mar 26, 2017 11:58

Sushi in Yiddish: Feb 2, 2008

Listening to this week's chapo trap house, they're talking with a guy from Pittsburgh about west Pennsylvanian disasters and man NITW really wasn't exaggerating about rich industrialists causing mass casualty events throughout the history of these towns (while donating a shitton of money to build libraries and public works)

# ¿ Mar 27, 2017 11:29